Paul Scholes has slammed Jose Mourinho for raving about West Ham’s scouts and defender Issa Diop, claiming it was a “massive dig” at his own recruitment staff.
The £22million [BBC Sport] summer signing from Toulouse enjoyed his best performance for the Hammers in their 3-1 win against Manchester United last month.
Mourinho labelled Diop as a “monster” and heaped praise on the scouts at the London Stadium.
Scholes has since told ESPN that he is not a fan of Mourinho speaking so highly of other clubs’ recruitment, especially as it is such an obvious swipe at his own staff.
“I didn’t like the manager praising West Ham’s chief scout after the defeat there and congratulating him on finding [Issa] Diop. It was a massive dig at his own scouts. If you’re a scout at Man United, how can you know what type of player to look for when the manager is changing his team every week and his formation all the time? Where’s the blueprint for the player you want? It must be an impossible job.”
OPINION
Scholes has a made a great point here because Mourinho looks as though he went out of his way to praise West Ham’s scouts and not just Diop. The Man United boss is quickly falling out of favour at Old Trafford and it appears that no one is immune from his continued rage. It’s getting a bit boring now. If it’s not Luke Shaw, it’s Anthony Martial. If it’s not him it’s Chris Smalling and if it’s not him it’s the scouts. Mourinho should still be looking for these kinds of players himself, Diop was hardly a hidden gem as he was playing in Ligue 1 for Toulouse last season – any manager worth his salt would have known about the French centre-back. As Scholes says, Mourinho chops and changes his squad all the time. He changes formation all the time and he changes personnel and roles all the time. How are the scouts meant to predict what he wants? Mourinho should be telling that what he wants and how he plans to use them.